Glued's the word to describe this one's status

Team ET, TNNJun 18, 2004, 12.15am IST

Television broadcasting grew at a brisk pace through FY2004 with the industry size — earnings from both advertisement and subscription — rising 15% to around Rs 4,000 crore. There were fewer shutdown of channels but many more channel launches. The word out is that there is going to be sustained growth over FY2005 at around 16% with industry revenues expected to go up to Rs 4,700 crore.

Spurring growth were improved ad spends on the back of better corporate results. Advertising on satellite television for FY2004 is estimated to have touched Rs 3,200 crore — up around 10% compared with the lacklustre 6% average growth rate in the previous years. For the current year, FY2005, industry analysts expect growth to rise a further 13% to Rs 3,600 crore.

Subscription revenues, although still accounting for about 25% of the advertising pie, was on the growth path. And for some aggressive companies like STAR and Zee Telefilms, domestic subscription revenues accounted for as much as 40% of their income.

Although cable television generated huge revenues of Rs 8,200 crore for FY2004, only about 10-15% of these revenues made their way back to the satellite channels. Cable television revenues are expected to go up further during FY2005 by 14% to Rs 9,400 crore.